The Psychology Student Writer’s Manual and Reader’s Guide

171 Pages·2018·1.28 MB·English

by  Jill M. Scott

The Psychology Student
Writer’s Manual
and
Reader’s Guide
Third Edition
Jill M. Scott
University of Central Oklahoma Emeritus
Gregory M. Scott
University of Central Oklahoma Emeritus
Stephen M. Garrison
University of Central Oklahoma
ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD
Lanham • Boulder • New York • London
Executive Editor: Nancy Roberts
Assistant Editor: Megan Manzano
Senior Marketing Manager: Kim Lyons
Interior Designer: Ilze Lemesis
Cover Designer: Sally Rinehart
Published by Rowman & Littlefield
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Copyright © 2019 by The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.
This book was previously published by Pearson Education, Inc.
Chapter 6 figures based on M. McGoldrick and R. Gerson, Genograms in Family Assessment (New York: Norton, 1986),
and E. Marlin, Genograms (Chicago, IL: Contemporary Books, 1989).
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means,
including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer
who may quote passages in a review.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Available
ISBN 978-1-4422-6698-8 (hardcover : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-1-4422-6699-5 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-1-4422-6700-8 (ebook)
∞ ™
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for
Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.
Printed in the United States of America
BRIEF CONTENTS
To the Student: Welcome to a Community of Skilled Observers and Helpers vii
To the Teacher: What’s New in the Third Edition? ix
PART 1 READING AND WRITING FOR
INTRODUCTORY PSYCHOLOGY COURSES
1 Read and Write to Understand People 1
2 Read and Write Effectively 16
3 Practice the Craft of Scholarship 33
4 Become Familiar with Perspectives in Psychology 83
5 Become Familiar with Skilled Observation 91
PART 2 BECOMING A PSYCHOLOGIST BY
LEARNING SCHOLARSHIP SKILLS
6 Read and Write Professionally and Critically 95
7 Research Effectively: Preliminary Scholarship 113
PART 3 PRACTICING PSYCHOLOGY IN ADVANCED
COURSES
8 Brain and Body 121
9 Becoming Ourselves 126
10 Fundamentals of Psychological Science 134
References 151
Index 154
iii
CONTENTS
To the Student: Welcome to a Community of Skilled Observers and Helpers vii
To the Teacher: What’s New in the Third Edition? ix
PART 1 READING AND WRITING FOR
INTRODUCTORY PSYCHOLOGY COURSES
1 Read and Write to Understand People 1
1.1 Reading Psychology Analytically 1
Read & Write 1.1: Analyze a Chapter from a Psychology Classic 7
1.2 Reading News as Interpersonal Influence 7
Read & Write 1.2: Critique a Lead News Article 13
2 Read and Write Effectively 16
2.1 Get into the Flow of Writing 18
Read & Write 2.1: Identify an Unanswered Question in Psychology 21
2.2 Organize Your Qualitative Writing 22
Read & Write 2.2: Write a Chapter Outline 24
2.3 Draft, Revise, Edit, and Proofread 24
Read & Write 2.3: Discover Your Own Style 32
3 Practice the Craft of Scholarship 33
3.1 The Competent Writer 33
Read & Write 3.1: Correct a Sentence Fragment 35
3.2 Avoid Errors in Grammar and Punctuation 35
Read & Write 3.2: Proofread the Mental Health Bill 53
3.3 Format Your Paper and Its Contents Professionally 56
Read & Write 3.3: Explain the Data in the Table 62
3.4 Cite Your Sources Properly in APA Style 62
Read & Write 3.4: Compile a Usable Bibliography 79
3.5 Avoid Plagiarism 79
Read & Write 3.5: Summarize an Article from In-Mind 82
4 Become Familiar with Perspectives in Psychology 83
4.1 Psychodynamic 83
Read & Write 4.1: Meet Dali and Freud 85
4.2 Behaviorist 86
Read & Write 4.2: Discover What TED Talks Says about Behavior 86
4.3 Cognitive 87
Read & Write 4.3: Explore Problems and Potentials of Artificial Intelligence 90
iv
Contents
Contents v
5 Become Familiar with Skilled Observation 91
5.1 Skilled Listening 91
Read & Write 5.1: Conduct a Focus Group 92
5.2 Social Behavior 92
Read & Write 5.2: Interview a Counseling Psychologist 94
PART 2 BECOMING A PSYCHOLOGIST BY LEARNING
SCHOLARSHIP SKILLS
6 Read and Write Professionally and Critically 95
6.1 Read and Write Qualitative Scholarly Articles in Psychology 95
Read & Write 6.1: Write a Genogram as a Personal Case Study 98
6.2 Critique an Academic Article 105
Read & Write 6.2: Critique a Scholarly Psychology Article 107
6.3 Write a Book Review 108
Read & Write 6.3: Review a New Psychology Book 110
6.4 Write a Literature Review 110
Read & Write 6.4: Write a Psychology Literature Review 112
7 Research Effectively: Preliminary Scholarship 113
7.1 Institute an Effective Research Process 113
Read & Write 7.1: Write a Research Proposal 116
7.2 Evaluate the Quality of Online and Printed Information 118
Read & Write 7.2: Locate and List a Dozen High-Quality Sources 120
PART 3 PRACTICING PSYCHOLOGY IN
ADVANCED COURSES
8 Brain and Body 121
8.1 Biological Psychology 121
Read & Write 8.1: Explore the Relationship of Climate Change to Mental
Health 123
8.2 Sensation and Perception 123
Read & Write 8.2: Discover Movement and Depth in Art 124
9 Becoming Ourselves 126
9.1 Developmental Psychology 126
Read & Write 9.1: Explore the Perils of Pseudomaturity 127
9.2 Motivation and Emotion 127
Read & Write 9.2: Discover a Diary of Anger, Sadness, and Fear 127
9.3 Personality 128
Read & Write 9.3: Know Thyself 128
vi Contents
9.4 Social Psychology 130
Read & Write 9.4: Reflect on the Psychological Foundations of Ideology 130
9.5 Abnormal Psychology 131
Read & Write 9.5: Explore the Psychology of Violence 132
10 Fundamentals of Psychological Science 134
10.1 Experimental Psychology 134
Read & Write 10.1: Write an Experimental Research Paper 136
10.2 Statistics for Psychology 140
Read & Write 10.2: Calculate Statistical Significance 141
References 151
Index 154
TO THE STUDENT
WELCOME TO A COMMUNITY OF SKILLED
OBSERVERS AND HELPERS
One of the most successful books in psychology on personal problem-solving and devel-
oping opportunities is The Skilled Helper by Gerard Egan (10th ed., 2013). The title’s
elegant simplicity immediately directs students’ attention to the essence of empowerment
to take action that leads to effective results of their own choosing. It presents a frame-
work for conceptualizing how to hear others in order to advance empathy, respect, and
genuineness—in other words, to listen actively.
And so we invite you to join something similar: a community of skilled observers.
This community is now, in 2018, officially 2,367 years old. That is because the seminal
foundational work of psychology, Aristotle’s (384–322 BCE) De Anima (On the Soul),
was written in 350 BCE. It contains ideas that are foundational to the study of, for
example, the mind and nervous system, the idea of souls, and basic ideas that Sigmund
Freud applied to his developing theories of psychoanalysis. Aristotle articulated concepts
that Freud interpolated, for example, libido, ego, id, and even the notion of self-actual-
ization. But it is reasonable to claim that psychology as science—indeed all science—was
born when, in Politics, Aristotle began his analysis of human behavior with the words
“observation shows us . . .” With these three profound words, science as observation
was established. Aristotle then proceeded to observe human potential around him as well
as the potential and vitality of the plants and animals in the natural world. He chronicled
the natural and human worlds of previous centuries. Aristotle recommended psychologi-
cal considerations for the future, such as the notions of individual capacities and faculties,
perception, nutrition, individual differences, and the criminal in society. For thousands
of years now, understanding of psychological phenomena has been based upon skilled
observation of human behavior. Today the multiple fields of psychology utilize scientific
methodologies to augment how we measure what we see.
The academic discipline of psychology as we know it today, however, grew from the
enthusiasm of William James at Harvard in the latter years of the 1800s. The American
Psychological Association (APA) was launched in 1892 to organize a rapidly growing pro-
fessional identity. A century of academic growth brought the advancement of the field of
scientific psychology to establish its niche in 1988 with the Association for Psychological
Science (APS).
Today psychologists study a wide variety of topics, perhaps best illustrated by the
APA’s and APS’s lists of organized divisions of the discipline and journals. Turn for a
moment to the references at the end of this volume to get an idea of the almost bewil-
dering variety of subject matter studied by today’s psychologists. As you peruse this list,
you will see from the breadth of topics that the discipline of psychology offers myriad
opportunities to study human behavior.
We shall make two final notes about this ancient as well as new discipline. First, its
accomplishments outside academia are generally a little frightening and misunderstood.
Many adults in the early 1900s were skeptical, even cynical, of the idea of just talking
about emotional illness or about people who had distressing mental health behaviors. But
humanity moved on. Everyone is familiar with the self-help era (Dear Abby, Dr. Spock,
Norman Vincent Peale). This genus of practical psychology created in the United States
a kinder, gentler face for the new discipline.
vii
viii To the Student
Second, Americans are little aware of the enormous influence psychological scientists
continue to have on our lives, which is in some ways foundationally different from what
things were like a century ago. The best examples might be in the identification and
treatment of severe mental illness. Where did these techniques come from? In almost
120 years of modern academic and scientific psychology, the field is doing what science
does best: careful observation, a clear hypothesis, and replicability, in addition to being
open to influence from the disciplines of evolution, biology, sociology, physiology, and
neurology. Before the 1900s (don’t forget Aristotle), psychologists and scientists began
studies to understand human behavior, and now, decades later, their continuing efforts
and insights are employed in highly sophisticated ways for practical effect.
TO THE TEACHER
WHAT’S NEW IN THE THIRD EDITION?
While at times today’s world appears to be an uninterrupted stream of reinvention, some
things change slowly, if at all. That is why this book’s primary value to you, the teacher,
has remained the same for more than two decades. This book helps in dealing with three
problems commonly faced by teachers of psychology:
1. Students increasingly need specific directions to produce a good paper.
2. Psychologists, as always, want to teach psychology, not English.
3. Students do not yet understand how and why to avoid plagiarism.
How many times have you assigned papers in your psychology classes and found yourself
teaching the basics of writing—not only in terms of content but form and grammar as
well? This text, which may either accompany the primary text you assign in any class or
stand on its own, allows you to assign one of the types of papers described in parts 2 and
3, with the knowledge that virtually everything the student needs to know, from grammar
to sources of information to reference style, is in part 1 of this one volume.
What’s new in The Psychology Student Writer’s Manual and Reader’s Guide, Third
Edition? Every chapter and chapter section has been updated and revised, many substan-
tially. The following chapter sections are new in this edition:
1.1 Reading Psychology Analytically
1.2 Reading News as Interpersonal Influence
4.1 Psychodynamic
4.2 Behaviorist
4.3 Cognitive
5.1 Skilled Listening
5.2 Social Behavior
6.1 Read and Write Qualitative Scholarly Articles in Psychology
7.2 Evaluate the Quality of Online and Printed Information
8.1 Biological Psychology
8.2 Sensation and Perception
9.1 Developmental Psychology
9.2 Motivation and Emotion
9.3 Personality
9.4 Social Psychology
9.5 Abnormal Psychology
The following writing exercises are new in the third edition:
Read & Write 1.1: Analyze a Chapter from a Psychology Classic
Read & Write 1.2: Critique a Lead News Article
Read & Write 2.1: Identify an Unanswered Question in Psychology
Read & Write 2.2: Write a Chapter Outline
Read & Write 3.2: Proofread the Mental Health Bill
ix